From Apath to Empath Socio Empath

Our identity and freedom as individuals cannot be found in isolation from society. It is the confrontation of constraints which makes us. For that we can do with empathy and the sociological imagination.

What did Nietzsche mean when he says, "It is hard enough to remember my opinions, without also remembering my reasons for them!"?

This is a question which gnaws on anyone who has seen enough of life. A question which only you - perhaps not the present you, but a future you - can answer.

Extracts from a premonitory reflection on death by Kathy Ong, a 19-year-old NUS student in Singapore, and a vivid description in the introduction of Atul Gawande's 'Being Mortal'.